Psychology 2320B-001

Abnormal Child Psychology

If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.

1.0    CALENDAR DESCRIPTION

This is a theory course is designed to introduce the wide-ranging theories of developmental psychopathology in children and adolescents. Topics will include the major DSM diagnostic categories for childhood disorders, as well as research and treatment. The course orientation is empirical, with an emphasis on recent research findings with this population.

 

Prerequisite: At least 60% in 1.0 credits of Psychology at the 1000-level 

Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enrol in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.

Antirequisites: Psychology 2042A/B, 2043A/B, 3320F/G

Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.

2 lecture hours and 1 tutorial hour, 0.5 course

 

2.0    COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor

Office

Email

Office Hours

Dr. Pan Liu

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

Room 2172

pliu256@uwo.ca

By appointment

Matt Vandermeer

Western Interdisciplinary Research Building (WIRB)

Room 2170

mvande66@uwo.ca

By appointment

 

           

 

            Teaching Assistant: Kimberly Dossett     

            Office: 60D Westminster Hall                                        

            Office Hours: By Appointment                          

            Email: kdossett@uwo.ca  

 

            Teaching Assistant: Catalina Sarmiento   

            Office: 60D Westminster Hall                                        

            Office Hours: By Appointment                          

            Email: csarmie2@uwo.ca                                              

 

            Teaching Assistant: Anne-Marie Muller     

            Office: WIRB                                                                

            Office Hours: By Appointment                          

            Email: amuller6@uwo.ca  

Class Times

Time and Location of Lectures:              2:30 pm – 4:30 pm, Tuesdays, UCC-56

Tutorial Times

            Time and Location of Tutorial 002:            9:30 am – 10:30 am, Thursdays, UCC-61

            Time and Location of Tutorial 003:            10:30 am – 11:30 am, Thursdays, UCC-61

            Time and Location of Tutorial 004:            11:30 am – 12:30 pm, Thursdays, UCC-61

            Time and Location of Tutorial 005:            12:30 pm – 1:30 pm, Thursdays, UCC-61

            Time and Location of Tutorial 006:            2:30 pm – 3:30 pm, Wednesdays, SSC-3026

            Time and Location of Tutorial 007:            3:30 pm  – 4:30 pm, Wednesdays, SSC-3026

                                                                                   

Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western

http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help.

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Student Accessibility Services (formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities) at 519-661-2147.

3.0  TEXTBOOK

Required:  Mash, E.J. & Wolfe, D.A. (2018). Abnormal Child Psychology (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.

 

Other materials available on the course OWL website: https://owl.uwo.ca/portal/site/1cf3a2ad-b111-408d-ac14-2e043ed8fb41 

4.0    COURSE OBJECTIVES

The goal of this course is to familiarize you with current concepts and research on major psychological and mental disorders of childhood, including issues of assessment, prevalence, course, major etiological theories, and treatment. Class meetings will consist of lectures that give a broad overview of the topic for that class and tutorials designed to provide the opportunity for greater in-depth discussion and exploration of specific topics. 


   4.1    STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES 

Student learning outcomes are diverse.  Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

 

  1. Describe key concepts, principles, and overarching themes relevant to abnormal child psychology, and identify concepts and current states of knowledge in social science, specifically abnormal child psychology. These outcomes will be assessed via exams and thought papers.

 

  1. Engage in a critical scholarly discussion on a psychological topic using evidence to support claims, and apply psychological principles to the understanding of everyday problems. These outcomes will be encouraged and developed via class discussion and thought papers.

 

5.0     EVALUATION

Course grades are based on performance on two exams, tutorial attendance/participation, and four short thought papers.

 

Midterm Exam

35%

Tutorial Attendance & Participation

10%

Thought Paper 1

5%

Thought Paper 2

5%

Thought Paper 3

5%

Thought Paper 4

5%

Final Exam

35%

 

 

Midterm Exam: The midterm exam will consist of items in multiple choice and t/f format. It will cover all material covered from Week 1 to 6 of the semester, inclusive.

 

Tutorials: Your attendance at, and participation in, course tutorials will constitute 10% of your grade. Your grade will reflect attendance at the tutorials, your thoughtful contributions to the discussion, and the extent to which you pay respectful attention to your TA and the group discussion during this time. Your own contributions should show critical thinking and that you have read, and thought about, the assigned readings for both the lecture and tutorial that week.

 

Thought papers: Four thought papers, worth 5% of your grade each, also contribute to your final grade.  The first two of the papers will focus on content from the first half of the course, with the second two drawing upon material from the second half of the course. You will choose a topic for each thought paper from a list of options provided on the course website. Papers are to be submitted prior to 5 pm through TurnItIn on the due dates noted below in the class schedule. 

Concerns about grades can be reviewed with either a teaching assistant or the instructor. Students wishing to have a grade reviewed must submit a brief note outlining the specific concerns regarding the grade and justification for re-evaluation. Either a teaching assistant or the instructor will then re-grade the assignment. It is possible that, on review, students may receive a lower grade than originally assigned.

Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:

70%     1000-level and 2000-level courses
72%     2190-2990 level courses
75%     3000-level courses
80%     4000-level courses
   
The Psychology Department follows Western's grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf):

A+  90-100      One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A    80-89        Superior work that is clearly above average
B    70-79        Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C    60-69        Competent work, meeting requirements
D    50-59        Fair work, minimally acceptable
F    below 50    Fail


6.0  ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE

Exam

When

Weight

Midterm exam

Feb. 25 during class time

35%

Final exam

As scheduled during final exam period (April 6-26)

35%

 

The details for the final exam were not available at the time of the printing of this syllabus. To avoid potential conflicts with the final exam for this course, students are strongly encouraged to refrain from making end-of-term travel plans that could potentially conflict with the final exam schedule. Check the UWO website for the final exam schedule as it becomes available 

7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

Week

Date

Topic

Reading from text or course website

Instructor

1

Jan. 7

Lecture: Introduction to developmental psychopathology; Conceptual models of psychopathology & risk

Chapters 1-2

Liu & Vandermeer

Jan. 9

Tutorial: How do we define mental disorder?

Relevant materials from course website

-

2

Jan. 14

Lecture: Methods in psychopathology research

 

Chapter 3

 

Liu

Jan. 16

Tutorial: Specific examples of published research in psychopathology

Relevant materials from course website

-

3

Jan. 21

Lecture: Diagnosis & classification; Assessment

Chapter 4

(pp. 81 – 108)

Vandermeer

Jan. 23

Tutorial: Structured clinical interviews; First thought paper due

 

None

 

-

4

Jan. 28

Lecture: Treatment

 

Chapter 4

(pp.109 – 122)

 

Vandermeer

Jan. 30

Tutorial: Examples of behavioral interventions

Relevant materials from course website

-

5

Feb. 4

 

Lecture: Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)

 

Chapter 8

Liu

Feb. 6

Tutorial: Is ADHD overdiagnosed?

Relevant materials from course website

-

6

Feb. 11

Lecture: Oppositional Defiant & Conduct Disorders (ODD & CD)

Chapter 9

Vandermeer

Feb. 13

Tutorial: Treatment of CD; Second thought paper due

Relevant materials from course website

-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7

Feb. 18

No Lecture—Reading Week

None

-

Feb. 20

No Tutorial—Reading Week

None

-

 

8

Feb. 25

MIDTERM EXAM

None

N/A

Feb. 27

No tutorial

None

-

9

March 3

Lecture: Anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders

 

Chapter 11

 

Liu

March 5

Tutorial: PTSD

Relevant materials from course website

-

10

March 10

Lecture: Mood disorders I

 

Chapter 10

 

Vandermeer

March 12

Tutorial: Depression in very young children

Relevant materials from course website

-

11

March 17

Lecture: Mood disorders II

 

Chapter 10

 

Liu

March 19

Tutorial: Pediatric bipolar disorder; Third thought paper due

Relevant materials from course website

-

12

March 24

Lecture: Autistic spectrum disorders & childhood-onset schizophrenia

Chapter 6

Vandermeer

March 26

Tutorial: Controversies in autistic spectrum disorders

Relevant materials from course website

-

13

March 31

Lecture: Eating disorders (EDs)

 

Chapter 14

 

Liu

April 2

Tutorial: Elimination Disorders; Fourth thought paper due

Chapter 12 (pp.451-456)

-

8.0     STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES

Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link:  http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf

As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com

Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.

Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.



9.0    POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS

Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?PolicyCategoryID=1&Command=showCategory&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12

 

The full policy for consideration for absences can be accessed at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/Academic_Consideration_for_absences.pdf


Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html

 

If you experience an extenuating circumstance (e.g., illness, injury) sufficiently significant to temporarily make you unable to meet academic requirements, you may request accommodation through the following routes:

  1. Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form (for circumstances that are expected to resolve within 48 hours);
  2. For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner in order to be eligible for Academic Consideration;

For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in order to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.

Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation. The self-reported absence form may NOT be used for absences longer than 48 hours; coursework/tests/exams/etc., worth more than 30% of the final grade; or exams scheduled in the December or April final-exam periods: http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html

Students seeking academic consideration:

  • are advised to consider carefully the implications of postponing tests or midterm exams or delaying handing in work;  
  • are encouraged to make appropriate decisions based on their specific circumstances, recognizing that minor ailments (upset stomach) or upsets (argument with a friend) are not normally an appropriate basis for a self-reported absence;

must communicate with their instructors no later than 24 hours after the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence



10.0        OTHER INFORMATION

Office of the Registrar web site:  http://registrar.uwo.ca

Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca

Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:

    http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html

- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2019-2020 Calendar References

No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.

Copyright Statement: Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute lecture notes, wiki material, and other course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent.